Trying To Remember Name Of Old TV Series

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Dangerously confused

A long time ago, maybe thirty years ago I remember watching a tv show set in Greece, one of the islands maybe. It was a british show though, and the story was about a man who went over to Greece to bury the body of his dead brother and put his affairs in order. Of course there was also the mystery of his brother's death to solve, and naturally he met a girl who it later turned out was an ancient Greek goddess.

Can any of you guys remember its name? It's been driving me nuts for a few weeks now.

Bearly Believable

Was it The Lotus Eaters, perhaps? Made in the early 70s, that was set on Crete. Or could it be Who Pays the Ferryman? (whose title does seem somewhat more related to a burial).

Having checked on Wiki, it's likely to be The Aphrodite Inhertance, set on Cyprus:

The series starred Peter McEnery as a man visiting Cyprus to investigate the death of his brother and subsequently being drawn into a strange conspiracy, with the narrative twists of the serial employing various supernatural and mythological motifs. Other major cast members included Alexandra Bastedo, Brian Blessed, Paul Maxwell and Stefan Gryff.

Dangerously confused

Just an update. It was The Aphrodite Inheritence, and I managed to get a copy from the guy running a Michael J Bird fan site. Watched all eight episodes - still good.

It's amazing how dated it is, there's even a hint of flares in some of the actor's clothing, which catches me out every time I see it. And as for the cars, all those old Alphas and Fiats, I doubt any of them would still be running any more. In fact given their pedigree, its unlike that many of them saw the eighties and the show was 1979!

The acting is stilted in places, the special effects - well suck is an unkind word but so very true, and there's that strange 70's weird (heavy man!) vibe running through it, and yet it still stands up. The scenery is gorgeous and the story stacks up against most modern shows really well.

In fact it was so good, it inspired me to write a novel based loosely around the premises of the ancient Greek gods getting involved in modern life and screwing around a little with mortals.

Bearly Believable

It's odd, and serendipitous, that you should revive this thread now. In the last few days, I've been trying to recall the name of a series that was, more or less tenuously, based on some people working in the area of the environment and/or environmental health. I can't even recall whether it was on the BBC or a commercial channel (although I think it was the former), or even the decade in which it was broadcast.

One episode started with the main character driving through the countryside (on the way to work?) and fiddling with a cassette in the car's player. A children ran out of a field and was hit by the car. (The general tenor of what followed was based on the premise that it was the child's fault, and so they investigated why he'd been running and from where.) Another episode seemed to involve a health clinic/spa. A third one was about chemicals being stored where they shouldn't (which may have been deliberate); someone fell ill, and may have died, as a result.

You may be able to tell that I'm very unclear about the details, to the extent that I half-believe I'm conflating different series.

Bearly Believable

I've had various ideas (more-than-vague guesses, so I won't repeat them here) about who may have appeared in the programme, but frequent visits to the IMDB site have proved that all these leads () were false.

Destroyer of Words

....In the last few days, I've been trying to recall the name of a series that was, more or less tenuously, based on some people working in the area of the environment and/or environmental health....I half-believe I'm conflating different series.

Bearly Believable

It wasn't that: apart from vaguely recalling Doomwatch, which had an entirely different feel to it (sometimes akin to horror), the series I'm not recalling very well was broadcast no earlier than the 80s (and we didn't get Channel Five here until Freeview appeared).

Bearly Believable

I recall The Eleventh Hour, the UK series from 2006 starring Patrick Stewart, that is, not the US one from the early sixties. Although both had something to do with the environment, the series whose name escapes me concerned far more mundane, low key stuff.

Well-Known Member

The health clinic and the chemical storage reminds me very vaguely of two arcs on Wiseguy, but that couldn't be it, as that show was actually the prequel to Twin Peaks and had some very distinctive story arcs that were far more distinctive than you describe. Besides, it was connected to the FBI.

Author of The Feral Space Series & other outrages

So this is the place to find out whether an old program existed or whether your brain just made it up, huh? OK, then...

This one goes back to when I was maybe 5 or 6 I think, so the early 80s. It was a children's program where some humans would go to alien worlds and have to solve crime mysteries (whether they were actual detectives or stumbled on these things like Miss Marple I don't recall). At various points, the show would stop and it would cut to an audience of kids and a presenter and they (and you the viewer) were invited to solve the mystery.

What gave the show real definition was that the alien worlds and aliens were paintings (given it was 80s and BBC there was little animation to 'em), often quite impressive in a Nemesis the Warlock kind of way.

Any ideas? I'd love to see it again if only to see how much my memory has mangled it.